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Paladins as tanks
Paladin Tank basics In order for any character to be an effective tank, he must accomplish two things: # Hold Aggro on the monsters his group is fighting, and # Reduce the incoming damage from those monsters enough to stay alive. Threat Generation In order to hold Aggro on a monster, a tank must be able to generate more Threat than his comrades. A paladin tank accomplishes this by dealing a large amount of Holy damage while under the influence of Righteous Fury. At level 16, every paladin can train a spell called Righteous Fury. When cast, for the next 30 minutes, this spell causes a 60% increase in the amount of Threat caused by all Holy spells the paladin casts. This means that each point of Holy damage inflicted by the paladin causes as much threat as 1.6 points of ordinary damage. With 3 talent points in the Improved Righteous Fury talent (a Tier 3 talent in the Protection tree), the bonus Threat caused by Righteous Fury is boosted to 90% and the Paladin tank takes 6% less of all damage. So long as the paladin can deal a steady stream of Holy damage on his target(s), he will be able to hold aggro even when his comrades are pounding on the same target(s). Some of the more common tricks for dealing Holy damage to a monster that is attacking the paladin are: * Seal of Righteousness * Holy Shield, a Tier 7 talent in the Protection tree * Blessing of Sanctuary, a Tier 5 talent in the Protection tree, * Consecration (always be mindful of crowd-controlled targets when using this ability) * Retribution Aura * Judgement of the Crusader * Righteous Defense * Equipment with + Spell Damage bonuses Advantages in Threat generation over other classes Paladins generate threat by {holy damage x threat multiplier} rather than high threat/low damage abilities like Sunder. Most of the Holy damage a Protection-specced paladin generates is reactive damage; that is, damage inflicted on an attacker as a result of the attacker hitting the paladin. This is a tremendous boon to the Protection paladin's ability to hold aggro on multiple monsters. The reactive Holy damage caused by Retribution Aura, Blessing of Sanctuary, and Holy Shield is more than enough to overcome the Threat caused by other party members healing the paladin; Righteous Defense can be used in those rare instances where the Paladin's threat is overtaken, as it taunts three enemies from the targeted ally for three seconds - long enough to land another blow of Holy damage. Coupled with Consecration, these abilities make the paladin tank the premier multi-mob tank, particularly evident in instances such as Shattered Halls where the mobs may be as large as 7 individuals. The only class which can near this level are Druids, who work on the same basis of threat by damage. Disadvantages in Threat generation compared with other classes Paladins (in general) make excellent off-tanks, but Protection Paladins suffer as off-tanks if they aren't being attacked since then they can't use reactive damage. As off-tanks taking small amounts of damage, a protection paladin will either go OOM, or have insufficient threat compared to a dps class. If a protection paladin and a second tank (any class) are tanking the same mob, allow the paladin to keep top threat and use taunts to leapfrog threat up to his level. In 5-man instances, a preferable offtank will instead be a DPS Warrior or Retribution Paladin. In order to match the Threat generated against a single target that a warrior or druid can achieve in the long term, a paladin tank has to equip at least some items with +spelldamage bonuses. This means the paladin must sacrifice a few of the defensive bonuses that his equipment would otherwise give him. Although the paladin tank's mana will be constantly replenished via his passive Spiritual Attunement power (so long as he's being healed), the paladin tank often has to expend mana for Threat-generation faster than Spiritual Attunement (SA) can replace it. To keep from running out of mana from time to time, he may have to equip items with Intelligence bonuses. This again eats into the item bonuses he would otherwise have available for defensive stats and Stamina. Paladins talented for main tanking generally have tiny mana pools. Some tankadins even go so far as to replace one or two pieces of tanking gear with +spell damage gear in order to have less damage mitigation, resulting in more heals and more mana attained from SA. If a paladin loses aggro, they have fewer options to regain it than a warrior. Warriors can peel individual mobs out of a group that are on a single target, but a Paladin's taunt (Righteous Defense) affects 3 targets. Blocking is a large portion of paladin threat generation and a paladin has less spell damage avoidance/mitigation and interrupts. As a result a warrior can tank casters far easier. Damage Mitigation Paladins achieve damage mitigation against incoming attacks in much the same way that Warriors do. Both classes wear plate armor and can equip a shield. Both classes are capable of dodging, parrying, and blocking. Disadvantages in damage mitigation compared with other classes Of primary concern to warrior and paladin tanks, who lack the armor of druid tanks, is the issue of Crushing Blows. Every attack made by a "boss" mob (Level '??') has a 15% chance of being a Crushing Blow, and this chance is not reduced by the target's Defense, Resilience, or any other defensive stat. Crushing Blows do 150% of the damage of normal hits, which in the world of damage mitigation is a Very Bad Thing. Blocking against Crushing Blows and Critical Hits do not provide good mitigation at all. The only known way to eliminate crushing blows from the equation is for the target's combined chances to be missed, to dodge, to parry, and to block (versus the incoming attack) to be so high that the 15% chance of being Crushed gets pushed off the table. To achieve this result against a lvl 73 boss mob, the target's combined miss+dodge+parry+block chance must be at least 102.4%. Warrior tanks have little trouble achieving this magical 102.4% avoidance chance, through the use of their Shield Block ability, which raises their Block chance by a whopping 75%. Paladin tanks do not have this luxury. Their Holy Shield ability only raises their Block chance by 30% (35.3% with the Libram of Repentance equipped), and their Redoubt ability only procs randomly and cannot be relied upon. To achieve uncrushability, a paladin tank must equip himself with gear that bestows an enormous amount of avoidance stat bonuses. The avoidance stat that is the easiest to obtain is Block Rating. This means that paladin tanks who wish to become uncrushable are usually going to have very high Block chances, at the expense of the higher Dodge and Parry chances that might otherwise be available to them. Worse, to stock up on so much Block Rating gear, one must usually sacrifice Stamina, which means the average paladin tank has a considerably smaller health-point pool for his healers to work with. However, once a paladin is uncrushable, they will never suffer a crushing blow unless they are hit more than 8 times in 10 seconds. A Warrior will suffer a crushing blow if they are hit more than 2 times in 5 seconds, which will happen fairly often. Once you have some epic gear a Paladin will generally be uncrushable without having to sacrifice a significant amount of stamina. In the context of Spiritual Attunement (SA), high Block is preferable to high Dodge or Parry. More damage suffered by the paladin equates to more healing, leading to more mana gained via SA. Blocked hits allow some damage suffered for healing+SA to proc, while dodged or parried hits do not allow any damage. This may become an issue when the tankadin is overleveled or overgeared for an instance, giving rise to exploits of tanking pantsless or with empty equipment slots in the paper doll when tanking lower level instances. Paladin Tanking Guide Introduction The following guide has been gleaned from the many wonderful contributions of the Paladin community on Blizzard's official Paladin Discussion forum. Morals and Ethics of Paladin Tanking The following comes from a post by Sven on the official forums: #Protection Warriors and feral Druids are not necessarily better tanks than we are – they are different. #We are not necessarily better tanks than protection Warriors and feral Druids – we are different. #Speccing 41 points into protection is not enough. 5/5 tier 4 prot gear is not enough. You need a certain amount of skill and a large amount of commitment to tank. Tanking is the most selective and competitive position there is in a raid – you need to be at the top of your game. #If you plan on tanking, you plan on sacrificing. It will be much harder to heal effectively, as it'll be harder to dps, grind and pvp effectively. Please expect this and do not complain once you're fully prot specced. Prot spec seems to be good for farming – this is not a mistake. You WILL need to farm for yourself. Repair bills WILL be high. This is something you've signed up for. #Do NOT be a loot hog. If you're tanking an instance, and a hammer with 299 +healing drops, do NOT roll on it unless you don't plan on tanking anymore or nobody else wants it. Healers need gear to keep you alive – don't take it away from them. #Remember, you are still a paladin. You can still use many of your paladin abilities while tanking. While it is inadvisable to heal yourself while tanking, you can always cleanse yourself, BoP/BoF others, rez between fights and heal when needed/possible. #Do NOT be intimidated from what others say about paladin tanking. We can do it, and we can do it well. Discouragement of paladin tanking will only hurt the community as a whole. #Do NOT shy away from discussion. Word needs to spread about our qualities (both negative and positive) as tanks. The player base of WoW should be as well informed as possible about our tanking style and mechanics. #Make sure your healers know how to heal you. For instance, ask for HoTs instead of bubbles at the beginning of an encounter so that you get mana back from spiritual attunement. Also, if the healer has loads of mana, and you have none, make sure that healer knows to send out big heals to refill your mana bar – any mana they have at the end of a serious encounter is a waste. #Go out of your way to refrain from breaking crowd control. We have a 3-target pull and an AoE that generates wonderful threat – nevertheless, keep these both away from the crowd control. As you'll find out in TBC, crowd control is more important than ever. That means, if you have a rogue with you, you will not be able to pull using Avenger's Shield without risking breaking the sap. Mages can sheep, hunters can trap and priests can shackle during combat, but rogues can't – be mindful. You can still pull with Avenger's Shield, and you can consecrate to your heart's delight, but don't break the crowd control. #Know your abilities. Do some research. Find out what our strengths are, how we can exploit them; what our weaknesses are and how we can improve them. This may be a good place to start: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=60779044&sid=1 (Note: Link dead as of 11/26/07) #Do not expect to always be the primary choice for a tank slot. We are, essentially, hybrids – even if you have sacrificed healing and dps ability, you may be called upon to do either (most probably healing). Heal, and heal with a smile – nobody wants to hear someone complaining about how they're forced to go against their spec. Situations may call for a change of role, and we have to be flexible. However, you should still help people realize that, yes, we are viable tanks and should not put up with being typecast as being "Priests in Plate". Try to find some balance between informing others and stereotyping yourself. #As prot spec, you WILL rely on groups the majority of the time. Don't be a %!!#. If you are the MT, your relationship with the rest of your group is more important than your mitigation or threat generation (though those two are still very significant) as your group/raid/guild will suffer or excel as a whole based, in part, on your attitude. If you don't trust your healers, you will perform worse. If your dps doesn't trust you, they will perform worse – causing more strain on the healers. Attitude will change the group/raid/guild's ability exponentially due to this fact. Do NOT be a *@%#. #If you vie for the MT position, don't step on the heads of others to get you there. You will need as much support as you can get. Learn to share the spotlight – there are now 3 tanking classes who want to tank – let them try it out and try to help them when they falter. You WILL need offtanks – find someone whom you trust to be a good tank and try to work out each others' kinks with him/her. Do NOT be a spotlight hog and do NOT assume that you can do everything yourself. #Learn the mechanics of the other tanks. Find out what they excel at and what hurts them the most. This means both the classes and the players behind the classes as well – you need to know the abilities of the classes/players you'll be tanking with. Do not assume that you will be the ideal tank for every single encounter. #Remember to keep these words in you're mind while tanking:"My job here is to die first!". #Have fun, but make sure you have fun pwning sh!t. I mean, isn't that what WoW's all about? Miscellaneous Info Blue Posts Listing of Blueposts on Paladin tanking (Originally posted by Sven, Official Paladin forums) NOTE: This link is no longer active as of 12/26/2007. Alternate Forums (paladin-tank specific) Maintankadin Forums (Contains strategies, gear&talent info, and success stories) Guides Paladin Tanking Guide Paladins and Tanking: A Guide by Kainas How to get 11.5K HP and Uncrushable Pre-Karazhan Paladin Macros Compilation of Paladin Macros for 2.0+ Tankadin gear compendium Follow the link above for a large list of Paladin specific tanking pieces, and non-class specific tanking pieces in The Burning Crusade. Thanks to the Paladin forum community for the great list of gear. Stats and Numbers Magical Resistances Take a look at the formulas for resistance and what they mean to spell hit. As you can see, versus same-level mobs we need +3% spell hit to make sure stuff like our judgments and Avenger's Shield and taunt hit the maximum amount possible (+3% only because there is a minimum 1% chance of spells missing – see http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/basics/resistances.html ). Now, as we'll easily be tanking mobs 1-2 levels above us, we should aim for +5% spell hit to maximize our threat output. The Protection talent Precision adds up to 3% spell and melee hit rating. Spell Damage Coefficients Source: Theras, Wow Paladin Forums Paladin Tanking Concerns: Endgame BC The following comes from a post by Megor (60, Rebirth, Smolderthorn) / Donar (70,Blade's Edge) (Original thread here) Note that this has changed substantially between the release of TBC and Patch 2.3, particularly the changes to Ardent Defender mentioned below and the new talent Combat Expertise in 2.3. Additionally, Improved Holy Shield provides 8 block charges over 10s, although it does not change the cooldown, making it possible to be crushed in the small time between Holy Shield expiring and the next being cast. There are still specific fights (such as the Essence of Desire aspect of Reliquary of Souls) where Paladins are at a severe disadvantage to Warrior (and possibly Druid) tanks. Gear itemization was also extensively reviewed in each of the major patches, although Paladin main tanks may find their Tier gear inferior to the non-tier sets at the same level. ---- As a paladin who has main tanked extensively in endgame BC instances (Karazhan, Gruul's Lair, and several heroic mode 5-mans), I believe I have a fair amount of experience from which to draw upon. There are several endurance/survivability issues that concern me, particularly in regards to how well a prot paladin (10/41/10) compares to my hyrbid brother, the bear spec druid. Because it is difficult for me to grasp the extent to which I am intended to be a "competitive tank," it is equally difficult for me to know exactly what content Blizzard intends my class to be able to tank reliably (in the context of brand new content with the best pre-content gear). I will try to break down my concerns with attempts at honest comparisons in each individual area of tank survivability. For starters, here is a link to my BC gear: http://worldofraids.free.fr/bc/donafinalr.jpg Mitigation (Armor) My total armor unbuffed (before aura) is 12.5k, which gives me a 54% damage reduction against physical attacks. Many bear druids report they are able to achieve around 20k armor, amounting to ~65% damage reduction to physical attacks. Although my Improved Righteous Fury talents give me an additional 6% damage reduction to all attacks, this reduction is applied in the same method as warriors' defensive stance (to the resulting damage of the attack after armor mitigation) . We'll use five man heroic mode Lieutenant Drake as an example. He Mortal Strikes for about 20k unmitigated (non crushing, non crit, is currently harder for me to survive against than any boss in Karazhan up to Netherspite...I have never beaten him as a tank, but I have healed druids in greens/blues through him). When I am not lucky enough to avoid the mortal strike, the best I can mitigate that value (fully buffed with 14k armor, ~56% damage reduction) with my current gear is to ~8k (205 blocked). A bear with 65% damage reduction will mitigate that attack to 7k damage. That bear just saved himself one thousand more health than me from a single attack. On a boss such as High King Maulgar, every single hit that lands will save that bear a minimum of 1k life per hit (from 20k normal attacks to 30k Might Blows, unmitigated). Mitigation (Block) I have heard that block percentage will no longer decrease one's chance to receive a crushing blow. If a blue has already answered this, then I apologize for not being informed, but if not, I would very much appreciate a confirmation if possible. Chance to block was one major aspect of mitigation both warriors and paladins maintained over druids, not only because of mitigated block value, but also the ability to push crushing blows completely off the combat table (combined with one's totoal avoidance). If block no longer does this, then paladins (and warriors) lose this edge. Now aside from the issue of crushing blows, block also has a chance to mitigate a certain amount of damage based on one's block value. However, based on the armor reduction comparisons above in which I take my block value into account, even a very high block value (say ~300) still pales in comparison to the damage reduction of bear armor, even if I could guarantee to block every single attack. In regards to warriors, Holy Shield (31pt prot talent) is also severely lacking by comparison to Improved Shield Block (+30% with 4 charges/10seconds versus +75% with 2 charges/5 seconds) as it is not even half as good as the warrior's version (which is only 11 pts), resulting in me taking substantially more damage over time versus slow hitting mobs in relation to a warrior (although dual wielding mobs, i.e. Moroes/Malchezaar/Romeo, hit so fast that all four charges tend to get used up anyway, a few unqiue encounters in which my Holy Shield essentially accomplishes the same thing as Improved Shield Block). It is somewhat unclear to me the impact of block will have on chance to be crit other than the fact that a blocked attack cannot be a crit. Mitigation (Spell Damage) Here in this department I am able to beat the bear by 4% (although I am 6% behind prot warriors comparitively and exactly equal to unspeced warriors). Avoidance (Defense, Dodge, and Parry) While not totally familiar with druid tanking itemization (other than their T4 bear set), it seems a bear could theoretically achieve the same amount of defense as me or a warrior (~500+, I have 512), which basically covers chance to be crit for all three classes (again, block not withstanding). While it is true that a bear cannot parry, their agility to dodge ratio is far higher than that of a paladin (16.5/1% versus 25/1%, please correct me if I am wrong here), and this leads me to wonder how much total avoidance a bear could achieve even without parry. Currently with the best BC blues and some epics, my total avoidance unbuffed (dodge/parry/miss) is around 52.5% (23/23/6.5). While I do not know exactly how high a bear with 500 defense can get his dodge percent too, I have heard of some bears having as high as 40% dodge fully raid buffed with Heart of the Wild (as druids get the most out of stat buffs due to said agility/dodge ratio). Add to that a 6% miss from defense, and said bear has virtually the same avoidance as me. Now, I am not trying to throw around absurdly high numbers on purpose, so if 40% dodge for a bear is completely off the mark, please let me know. It has been very difficult for me to get a firm grip on bear tanking itemization, so I am doing the best I can by asking players I come across. Druid 2 cents: Feral druids have +4% dodge from talents, +3% chance to skip meele criticals from talents. Agility/Dodge ratio is 14,7/1% (lvl 70). NE's also have +1% from racial. Heart of Wild do not increse Bear Agility, only Stamina by 20%. Survival ot the Fittest increse all stats by up to 3%. A heavy geared druid lvl 70 in TBC can beat 50%+ dodge and 30k AC. Druids does not need so much defense, agility and dodge ratins have bigger returns. Bear form receive +25% HP form all HP/Stamina buffs, but stamina based buffs can receive more 23% from SotF and HotW too. Health My greatest concern about being a paladin tank is the inability to handle spike damage for lack of adequate health. My current unbuffed health is 10.7k (which includes +6% stamina from talents). As a test, I asked a prot warrior to take off his gear and we compared our base health. We found warriors upfront to have ~1200 more health than paladins. While I realize the importance of keeping the game balanced for PvP, 1200 health is still a substantial lead even in the 16k+ range for tanking in PvE. Bears on the other hand have upwards of 3k more health in equal gear with Heart of the Wild. Add to this the fact that my T4 tanking set has a total of 44 less stamina than the warrior's, and we are looking at a very substantial (and disturbing) health gap between a paladin tank and either of the other two tank classes in full tanking epics. From my experience in both heroic five mans and raid instances alike, high mana per five and intellect values (as found in abundance on my T4) dramatically lose their value as there is so much healing being done to me from the amount of damage I am taking that I end most pulls with full mana. Combine low health with the damage mitigation examples provided above and this makes equally geared bears far, far easier to heal and dramatically increases their chances to survive against the harder hitting bosses of this game (i.e. our heroic Lieutenant Drake). Even if my bear dodge estimate is off, no tank can rely on avoidance forever, and if one does not have the health to absorb potentially deadly attacks, he will be replaced by a tank who can. Ardent Defender is a semi solution to this. It is a great talent becuase of it's "chance" to cut an attack in half (read on why I say "chance"). With 16k fully raid buffed health (food/drink and flask), I have 3200 health at the 20% mark. In the best case scenario, I can potentially eat a 6k damage attack at 19% health because said attack would only land for 3k damage through Ardent Defender (or even a little less if I am lucky to get a Power Word: Shield at that point, which would also follow the AD mechanic). However, real experience is rarely so lucky, and even a 3.3k hit at 20% health will kill me. The skill has a very high portential to be completely leap frogged and ends up very rarely affecting any attack from a heroic five man boss like Lieutenant Drake, and it will never ever take effect on any attack from High King Maulgar. While I will never spec out of this ability (because I believe every talent that increases a tank's survival rating is worth picking up, especially in the case of a paladin), it is a highly unreliable means of survival (and completely useless on hard enough hitting mobs) comparitively to simply having more health like a bear or warrior. Ardent Defender Post 2.1 The Ardent Defender Talent was changed so that it would be less likely to be "leap-frogged". It would activate when the paladin falls below 35% (instead of 20%). However, the damage reduction was modified to 30% instead of 50%. This was a direct response to the talent being ignored altogether in raid situations where mobs/bosses could easily hit the Paladin for more than 20% of their total health. Using the above example, the paladin would be just below 5.6k health when Ardent Defender kicked in. This would allow the Paladin to take an easy 7.5k attack, which would be mitigated to 5.25k, and still stay alive. The spike damage is handled better than it used to; however, when bosses hit for more than that number, the talent is still ignored. While it significantly helped in end-game raid encounters, some have argued that it hurt solo grinding. The 50% damage reduction was very significant because mobs hit nowhere near enough for the Paladin to be in danger of dying at 20% health. Conclusion Of all the stats I have to make myself a good tank, adequate health is the most diffiult one to come by for a paladin. Inspite of the fact that I take a more damage from my talents than a prot warrior (and in some cases an unspeced warrior), I do not have the armor or stamina to make up for that as the bear does. Although it is possible for me to heal while taking damage (hence why I put 10 points into the Holy tree), I cannot block or parry while casting a spell, and thus I likely end up taking as much if not more damage from the mob than the poor amount I would heal for in full tank gear (~300 dmg/healing). Low health, in my opinion, makes the paladin a substantially weaker tank out of all three classes, and it feels particlarly upsetting even more so when considering that bear spec and cat spec are essentially the same talent points now. If I could somehow go retadin and tankadin with the same talent tree, I would have no reason to complain really, but that is not the case nor I do not want it to be. The paladin protection tree is a tree of tanking specializtion to the same degree that the warrior one is. I believe that level of specialization is deserving of being a better tank than it currently allows. My Solution As low health is a paladin's greatest weakness, it is my humble opinion that Ardent Defender should be re-worked so that it cannot be leap frogged. By the same token I would also like to humbly suggest that our tiered tanking sets be re-itemized for greater stamina and less intellect/mp5. If a paladin wants to offtank only occasionally and heal more, he has plenty of other item slots to equip healing pieces with regen and intellect. A serious tank, on the other hand, must be able to maximize his survival. This combination of things will spell failure for would be paladin tanks in most raiding guilds if they are not changed. Then again, as I mentioned in my opening paragraph, it may be the developers' intent for the paladin only to offtank easy mobs occasionally and never the hard hitting ones, in which the case the role of "tank junior" is working as intended. However, if it is also your intent to make the five man heroic bosses hit as hard as some of the 25 man bosses (as some are quite close to doing right now), then it should be known that it will currently be nearly impossible for even a highly geared paladin tank to handle many five man heroic mode bosses, and we will cease being considered reliable tanks for even the five man endgame, which is why I presume paladins and druids were buffed to be good tanks in the first place-- unless 20% of the player base is warriors, people will need other classes to tank for their heroic five mans. Rather than see a nerf to heroic content, I would rather see my class rise to the challenge. I believe the concept of Ardent Defender arose in order to help paladin tanks deal with our lower level of health and thus I believe it simply needs tweaking in order to bring paladin survival on par with bears and warriors. ---- Blocking Comparison Still a work in progress by Zalkir (Official Paladin forums) Category: Paladins :